Thigh-mounted device holder

ABSTRACT

Embodiments of the invention provide a cell phone holder that is attached to a wearer&#39;s thigh. In a particular embodiment the holder uses a pocket attached to a body that is secured around a thigh with a horizontal strap or straps. A vertical strap is used to couple to a horizontal strap and to part of the user&#39;s clothing such as a belt, belt loop, pocket or other garment structure to prevent the holder from slipping down the thigh. Other variations are disclosed including mechanisms to rotate the phone, operate the phone&#39;s touch screen and other controls while in the holder, secure the holder to the garment or thigh, provide advertising or animations on the phone&#39;s display screen while the wearer is upright such as standing or walking, etc.

BACKGROUND

Embodiments of the invention relate generally to a holder for a mobilephone and more specifically to a leg-mounted mobile phone holder.

Mobile, cell or other types of portable phones or communication deviceshave become commonplace. These devices typically have many features inaddition to allowing a user to make phone calls. For example, today's“smartphones” provide navigation, web browsing, communications such asphone calls, email, text, videoconferencing, etc.; still and videocamera recording, gaming, education, business and other applications.Typically, a cell phone is carried in a pocket or purse, or is sometimesstrapped to an armband. However, such ways of carrying or holding thedevice may make it inconvenient for a user to access or use the phone,or may make certain features and benefits of the phone difficult to use.

SUMMARY

Embodiments of the invention provide a cell phone holder that isattached to a wearer's thigh. In a particular embodiment the holder usesa pocket attached to a body that is secured around a thigh with ahorizontal strap or straps. A vertical strap is used to couple to ahorizontal strap and to part of the user's clothing such as a belt, beltloop, pocket or other garment structure to prevent the holder fromslipping down the thigh. Other variations are disclosed includingmechanisms to rotate the phone, operate the phone's touch screen andother controls while in the holder, secure the holder to the garment orthigh, provide advertising or animations on the phone's display screenwhile the wearer is upright such as standing or walking, etc.

One embodiment provides an apparatus, wherein the apparatus includes aholder for coupling a mobile phone to a thigh of a wearer of theapparatus, wherein the mobile phone includes a display screen, theholder comprising: a pocket for slidably receiving the mobile phone, thepocket including a top edge opening for sliding the mobile phone intothe pocket; a transparent top face allowing at least a part of themobile phone's display to be visible when the mobile phone is inside thepocket; a horizontal strap for securing the pocket to a thigh of awearer of the holder such that the mobile phone is upside-down when thewearer is upright and is right-side-up to the wearer's viewpoint whenthe wearer is sitting; and a vertical strap for preventing downwardmovement of the pocket when the wearer is upright.

Another embodiment provides a holder for a portable device, wherein theholder affixes the portable device to a thigh of a wearer, wherein theportable device includes a display screen, the holder comprising: meansfor coupling the portable device to a holder; and means for coupling theholder to the thigh of the wearer in a manner that prevents verticalslipping of the holder down the thigh when the wearer is upright.

Yet other embodiments are possible, some of which are described below.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1, shows a front view a holder as it is worn on the right thigh ofa person;

FIG. 2 shows a side view of the phone holder of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 shows a wearer's point of view when the wearer is sitting downand looking at phone holder as worn on their right thigh;

FIG. 4 shows a phone being inserted into a holder's pocket's top edgeopening;

FIG. 5 shows an enlarged illustration of a phone in the holder; and

FIG. 6 shows the phone and holder of FIG. 5 with the pocket and theinserted phone rotated 90 degrees to the right.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

FIG. 1, shows a front view of phone holder 110 approximately as itappears being worn on the right thigh area 120 of a person. Phone holder110 includes right horizontal strap 122 and left horizontal strap 124.In a preferred embodiment, pocket 116 includes a pouch formed so that aphone can be slid into top edge opening 118. The pouch structure isessentially sealed on the other sides and securely holds the phone inthe pocket until the phone is slid out of the pouch by a wearer.Although a preferred embodiment uses two horizontal straps, otherembodiments might just use one longer or even continuous strap. In yetother embodiments more or less (including none) horizontal straps can beused, as desired and to achieve intended functionality such as weightdistribution, stability, positioning, style, extra holding capacity,etc.

Vertical strap 112 is attached to the holder at a point on right strap122 near where strap 122 joins body 132 of holder 110. The other end ofvertical strap 112 attaches to a belt 114 of the wearer. In a preferredembodiment, the holder is positioned on a wearer's, or user's, thigh sothat a pocket of the wearer's pants, such as pocket area 130 shown indashed lines, is not obstructed. Many variations, adjustments or othermodifications from the specific embodiments described herein arepossible and may be within the scope of the claims. For example, theprecise manner and placement of attachment of vertical strap 112 toholder 110 and belt 114 can vary among different embodiments. In apreferred embodiment, vertical strap 112 is sewn onto right strap 122.In a preferred embodiment, the top of vertical strap 112 includes a“gripping surface” such as Velcro™, or re-usable semi-tacky adhesive,etc., so that the vertical strap can be looped and attached to itself.This allows the end of the vertical strap to be looped around a belt,belt loop, strap or other feature of a pants or article of clothing inorder to secure the strap. The exact positioning of the holder upon auser's thigh can vary depending upon the pants or other garment worn, ornot worn, over the thigh (e.g., shorts, dress, etc.) or as desired by awearer. Some of the possible variations are described in more detail,below.

FIG. 2 shows a side view of the phone holder of FIG. 1. In FIG. 2, awearer's body is in a slightly crouched position as if entering asitting position. Phone holder 110 is shown in a side view where pocket116 is facing to the right and slightly up. In a preferred embodiment,the top face of pocket 116 is a transparent and flexible plasticmaterial that allows a wearer of the holder, and user of the phone, toview and operate the phone's touch screen and other buttons through theface of the pocket. In FIG. 2, vertical strap 112 is shown connected toright strap 122 and to the wearer's belt 114. In a preferred embodiment,even as a wearer is sitting down, the holder 110 remains clear ofoverlapping, or significantly overlapping, pocket area 130. In manyembodiments, it may not be important, necessary or even desirable toprevent overlap of the holder's body, side straps, vertical straps orany other part of the holder with structures of other garments such aspockets. A preferred embodiment uses a vertical strap made of a slightlyflexible cloth material such as a cotton and elastic fabric and is about1 inch wide. In a preferred embodiment the vertical strap length isabout 25″ long and about 1″ wide. It is adjustable by a wearer to suitdifferent body sizes, garments, etc. In other embodiments, the strapneed not be flexible and/or adjustable and can be made of othermaterials such as plastic, leather, etc. and be of other lengths anddimensions. In yet other embodiments, discussed below, a vertical strapmay not be necessary.

Body 132 can be rigid, flexible or semi-rigid. The material can becontoured to the thigh or can provide a flat backing for placement of adevice. A preferred embodiment uses a flexible body made of single ordouble-backed neoprene. In general any suitable type of material may beused for the body or other parts of the holder. The shapes, colors andother material properties can be varied for functional or stylisticreasons.

FIG. 3 shows a wearer's point of view when the wearer is sitting downand looking at phone holder 110 as worn on their right thigh. It shouldbe apparent that although the holder is illustrated in an example asbeing worn on the right thigh, analogous designs could be created thatwould work similarly and equally well on the left thigh. In FIG. 3, aphone has been inserted into a pocket of phone holder 110. The phone ispositioned in the pocket such that the phone's controls 200 on the lowerpart of the phone (closest to the wearer's torso) are protrudingslightly out from under the top face edge 133. As noted above, top face116 is preferably made of flexible clear plastic so that the display ofthe phone can be clearly seen while at the same time any touch-screeninterface provided by the phone is operable as are any buttons or othercontrols located on the phone's top surface. In general, reference to“controls” includes graphical or virtual (“software”) controls and/orphysical (“hardware”) controls unless otherwise noted.

In a preferred embodiment, the top face is designed so as to expose, ornot overlay, the phone's controls. This allows for better operation ofcertain types of controls such as, for example, trackball 134 or fourbuttons just above the trackball as shown by icons at the upper part ofarea 200. In other embodiments the top face edge 133 might overlap fullyor partially with controls on the bottom edge of a phone. One advantageto allowing a small amount (e.g., one-half inch) of the phone's body toprotrude from the pocket in addition to providing easier operation ofthe controls is so that a user can easily pull the phone out of thepocket by gripping the exposed phone part. However, in other embodimentssuch protrusion need not be provided—or more or less protrusion may bedesired as, for example, to provide a weatherproof or weather-resistantenclosure around the phone.

When a user is in a sitting position the phone is then positioned in an“upright” or right-side-up arrangement so that anything displayed on thephone (e.g., text, images, maps, controls, etc.) will be orientedcorrectly with respect to the user's viewpoint. Since the top face 116allows viewing and operation of the phone's touch-screen the user mayoperate the phone normally without removing it from the pocket and atthe same time have the phone in a secure position. In a preferredembodiment, the pocket's edge 128 (shaded edge) and body area 132 of theholder are made of a soft flexible material such as neoprene. Thisallows the phone to be inserted with some tension to hold the phone inplace; provides for flexibility of the holder while strapped to a user'sthigh, and also allows the user to be able to operate tactile, physicalcontrols on the phone's edge such as, for example, volume controls,power button, etc.

FIG. 4 shows a phone 210 being inserted into pocket 116 through thepocket's top edge opening 118. The phone is inserted by pushing thephone in the direction A-A′. Typically the insertion operation can bedone with one hand, such as the right hand if the holder is worn on theright thigh. The holder is shown in expanded form as if laid out flat ona tabletop. In a preferred embodiment left horizontal strap 124 is about12 inches long while right horizontal strap 122 is about 9 inches long.The straps are adjustable as, for example, by providing a buckle or loopthrough which the straps can attach to the body (not shown) andproviding a gripping surface on the straps. The straps can also attachto each other at their free ends by use of gripping fabric or by othermeans such as a buckle, snap, button, etc. The horizontal straps areabout 1¾ inches wide. As mentioned, many design variations are possibleeither for aesthetic or functional reasons including the size, positionand number of the straps. In general, any suitable form of attaching onepart to itself or to another part may be used, as desired. Body 132 (seeFIG. 1) is about 4 inches wide (from left horizontal strap to righthorizontal strap) and 5 inches tall while pocket edge 128 forms arectangle of about 2½ inches wide by 4 inches tall. As mentioned herein,other embodiments may use many other dimensions to accommodate differentdevices, styles, functionality, etc.

In a preferred embodiment, vertical strap 112 includes two mating sidesof a gripping surface. For example, loop area 140 may include “loop”type fabric while hook area 142 may include “hook” type fabric (eitheron the top or bottom sides of the vertical strap). This allows the endof the vertical strap to be folded over on itself around a clothingstructure such as a belt, belt loop, strap, etc. and the hook typefabric end of the vertical strap is then secured to the loop type fabricpart of the vertical strap to secure the vertical strap to the clothingstructure. This prevents the other parts of the holder such as thehorizontal straps 122 and 124, body 132, pocket 116, etc., fromundesired slipping down a leg of the wearer when the wearer is uprightsuch as standing, walking, running, etc., as opposed to sitting,reclining or laying down. Naturally, the hook and loop fabric may beinterchanged, as is known in the art.

In other embodiments the vertical strap can be secured by any suitablemeans such as with a clip, buckle, snap, stitching, adhesive, button,zipper, etc. In yet other embodiments it may not be necessary to use avertical strap. The holder body or other part of the holder may besupplied with any suitable type of fastener or fastening means in orderto keep the holder from slipping. For example, the backs of holder body132 and/or horizontal straps 122 and 124 can be applied with tackyadhesive or low-tack re-adhesive material such as that used in, forexample, Post-It™ notes. Small hooks with sharp points can be affixed tothe back of the holder body or horizontal straps and used to piercefabric of the pants very minutely to prevent slipping without piercingthe wearer. The wearer's garment may have built-in mechanisms forpreventing slipping such as clips, buttons, snaps, gripping surface(e.g., Velcro™), etc. These mechanisms that are built-in or designedinto the garment could have a cooperating part on the holder such as abutton hole, receiving snap, fabric with a gripping surface, etc. Inthis way, the holder or any of its parts such as the body, pocket,horizontal straps, etc. can be sufficiently secured. For example, theholder or parts of the holder may be permanently attached to a garmentas by sewing the part onto the garment. In other embodiments no verticalsecuring mechanism need be used as, for example, where a user bands theholder to a thigh at a point just above the user's knee so that the kneejoint might provide enough structure to keep the holder in place.

The horizontal straps may similarly be of varying design and usedifferent attachment mechanisms. A preferred embodiment uses grippingsurfaces on the ends of the horizontal straps so that they may matetogether. A buckle, button, snap, zipper, etc., may be used in additionto adhesive, hooks clips or any of the other mechanisms describedherein.

Any suitable one or more approaches to securing the holder or parts ofthe holder to a wearer's garment or to the wearers, themselves, may beemployed. For example, the area 126 of FIG. 4 can be provided withgripping surfaces (either on the top (side facing out of the drawingpage) or bottom of the horizontal strap 122) so that differentattachments for vertical support can be provided. One attachment can bethe vertical strap 112 of FIG. 4 which would attach to the area 126 witha gripping surface on the vertical strap. Another attachment can be asmall pad that has one side of gripping surface to attach to the bottomof horizontal strap 122 at area 126. The other side of the pad (or anedge of the pad) can include a gripping surface, tiny hooks for slightlypiercing into a fabric, a clip, etc. for attaching or adhering to thegarment or thigh of a wearer. Most likely the design would not use tinyhooks if the pad is to be worn directly over a user's skin.

FIG. 5 shows an enlarged illustration of a phone in the holder. In FIG.5, pocket edge 128 runs along 3 edges of the phone and is formed of aflexible fabric material such as neoprene to hold the phone in placesecurely while at the same time allowing easy insertion into the pocketand removal. Since the edge fabric is opaque it is designed not tooverlap the top surface of the pocket to any significant amount so thatthe display is not obscured.

Other approaches might allow more overlay of opaque material on thedisplay without seriously detracting from viewing the display. Forexample, a sheer mesh such as nylon may be used which provides asemi-transparent, semi-opaque covering which allows sufficient viewingof the device's display screen and also allows touch-screen controls tobe adequately sensed.

In FIG. 5, one design refinement may be employed to correct for holder“sag”. Since right horizontal strap 122 is directly supported byvertical strap 112, the left horizontal strap 124's side may be pulledin the direction B-B′ due to gravity when the user is upright. Dependingon the specific design and materials used, this sagging be enough tocause the phone to not be aligned vertically with the wearer's leg andbody ergonomics in general. In order to correct for this the pocket(including pocket edge 128) can be set at an angle to the line C-C′ D-D′by rotating the pocket in the direction F-F′ and E-E′ slightly. Thus,with the sag, the phone will appear aligned with the vertical, orparallel to the direction of gravity. In other embodiments sag may notbe a problem or the aesthetic or ergonomic effect of having the phone atan angle may be preferred.

One embodiment provides pocket edge 128 with a gripping surface oranother attachment mechanism so that it can be detached from body 132and reattached in a slightly different position. This can allow fordifferent sizes and shapes of phones to be accommodated.

In some embodiments it may be desirable to provide a way to rotate thephone to a horizontal or “landscape” view. FIG. 6 shows the phone andholder of FIG. 5 with the pocket, and thereby the inserted phone,rotated 90 degrees to the right in the direction of F-F′ and E-E′ inFIG. 5. This allows the phone, or other device, to be operated in alandscape mode or any other different orientation. In an alternativeembodiment, the phone is mounted to a backing (not shown) such as a hardplastic backing that clamps onto two or more edges of the phone. Thiscan leave the top face of the “pocket” open so that there is little orno material intervening between a user's view and the phone's displayscreen. The backing can then be secured to the holder body by a rivet orother scheme that allows rotating. The backing can have detents orsufficient friction with the holder body so that sufficient force isneeded to perform the rotation and to prevent the phone and pocket fromrotating to a different position against the user's desire. If a meshmaterial is used to form the pocket (see above) then the mesh materialcan be made highly flexible so that the user can twist the pocket andthe phone to a different rotational position.

Portion 220 protrudes from pocket edge 128 slightly so that the user maygrip the protruding edge to pull the phone from the pocket. In apreferred embodiment the amount of protrusion is about ½ inch. Otherembodiments can have more or less protrusion. Some embodiments mayprovide full coverage over the phone such as pocket edges and face thatextend to completely cover the phone, or a flap (opaque or transparent)that folds over to enclose the phone to protect it from weather, etc.

Various other openings and features can be provided in addition to thosealready described. For example, a small hole or opening in the pocket'stop face 116 can be made to accommodate the speaker opening 222 in thephone. Another opening can be provided at, for example, the top edge ofthe pocket at a position such as 224 to allow plugging and unplugging awired headphone or headset. In general, any number, type and arrangementof openings or accessibility features can be provided.

Another aspect of the phone holder includes software modifications orapplications that can enhance the use of the phone in or with theholder. For example, the user may choose to “lock” the phone in aportrait mode if the phone is held in portrait mode in the holder. Thisis to prevent the phone's display from switching to landscape displaywhen the phone is not in a landscape orientation. Sometimes when thephone is laid flat, such as when the user sits down, the sensors of thephone have difficulty detecting whether the phone is being viewed inlandscape versus portrait orientations.

An advertising mode can be provided where when the phone is in theholder and the user is upright the phone displays advertisements, orimages or animations of the user's choosing. Since in a preferredembodiment the phone is normally upside-down to non-user's the imagesshould be displayed accordingly. The phone can detect when it is in theholder and the user is walking as, for example, by using any one or moreof the sensors that are typically built-in to modern phones. Suchsensors include a light sensor, accelerometers, gyroscopes, etc. Walkingcan be detected by sensing the rhythmic force created by the wearer'snormal walking motion, or footsteps. Standing can be detected by sensingthat the phone is vertical and upside-down for at least a thresholdamount of time. Animations or advertisements can be made to synchronizeto the footstep movements. In this way the phone display canautomatically go into an advertising or animation mode when the userstands or walks. Such modes can be under user settings so that the usercan disable the modes. Advertising content can be sent from a centralsource that is managed by a different entity than the user or wearer.Other variations are possible.

Although embodiments of the invention have been described with respectto particular embodiments thereof, these particular embodiments aremerely illustrative, and not restrictive of the invention. For example,many different types of phones may be accommodated from smartphones witha lot of functionality to more simplistic phones. Although the holderhas been described primarily with respect to use with portable phones,it should be apparent that many other types of portable devices can beaccommodated. For example, music players, personal digital assistants(PDAs), tablet computers (e.g., Samsung Galaxy Tab™), portable gamedevices, cameras, etc., may be suitable for use with embodiments of theinvention.

Another modification is to provide a “dock” mechanism for mating thephone to the user's thigh. For example, pocket 116 can be a sleeve witha gripping surface backing. Holder body 132 can have counterpartgripping surface on its surface so that the user can simply leave thepocket around the phone and then place or remove the phone onto the bodygripping surface. This allows the phone to be placed at arbitrarypositions (e.g., portrait or landscape orientations or anythingin-between). The counterpart gripping surface can also be built into thegarment such as sewn onto a pair of pants, dress, jacket, or othergarment. In such an embodiment it may be desirable to use stronger typesof gripping surface material to detachably secure the device to thegarment. For example, so-called “dual lock” or “superlock” material from3M Corporation or RadioShack™, respectively, may be employed which hasgripping power of 4 times or more than standard Velcro™. Naturally, abalance between ease of detachment and re-attachment versus unwanteddetachment or dropping of the phone should be achieved.

Other embodiments may include additional compartments, loops, clips,pockets or other apparatus for holding or attaching additional objects.For example, the holder body may be large enough to allow a pouch oradditional pocket for glasses, sunglasses, keys, a pen or pencil,cosmetics, etc. Such apparatus for holding additional objects may beattached to the body or vertical or horizontal straps, as desired.

Although the holder has been described with the particular arrangementof pocket attached to body, body attached to horizontal strap(s),vertical strap attached to horizontal strap, etc., other arrangements ofparts are possible. Depending on how the holder is secured to a garmentor thigh some parts may not be needed, can vary in size, shape andposition, and other parts may be added. For example, the pocket part,with or without an underlying body part, may be attached to the verticalstrap or to a horizontal strap. In one embodiment, only a vertical strapis used with a pocket and optional body attached to the vertical strap.This embodiment has the advantage that it can be used with many garmentssuch as a dress or pants without a belt, etc. However, the phone willnot be as secure on the thigh as with additional attaching mechanismssuch as one or more horizontal straps. Other arrangements are possible.

Any suitable programming language can be used to implement the routinesof particular embodiments including C, C++, Java, assembly language,etc. Different programming techniques can be employed such as proceduralor object oriented, scripts, interpreted or compiled code, etc. Theroutines can execute on a single processing device or multipleprocessors that read the instructions from a processor-readable storagedevice such as random access memory, flash memory, hard disk drive,optical drive, etc. Although the steps, operations, or computations maybe presented in a specific order, this order may be changed in differentparticular embodiments. In some particular embodiments, multiple stepsshown as sequential in this specification can be performed at the sametime.

Particular embodiments may be implemented in a computer-readable storagemedium for use by or in connection with the instruction executionsystem, apparatus, system, or device. Particular embodiments can beimplemented in the form of control logic in software or hardware or acombination of both. The control logic, when executed by one or moreprocessors, may be operable to perform that which is described inparticular embodiments.

Particular embodiments may be implemented by using a programmed generalpurpose digital computer, by using application specific integratedcircuits, programmable logic devices, field programmable gate arrays,optical, chemical, biological, quantum or nano-engineered systems,components and mechanisms may be used. In general, the functions ofparticular embodiments can be achieved by any means as is known in theart. Distributed, networked systems, components, and/or circuits can beused. Communication, or transfer, of data may be wired, wireless, or byany other means.

It will also be appreciated that one or more of the elements depicted inthe drawings/figures can also be implemented in a more separated orintegrated manner, or even removed or rendered as inoperable in certaincases, as is useful in accordance with a particular application. It isalso within the spirit and scope to implement a program or code that canbe stored in a machine-readable medium to permit a computer to performany of the methods described above.

As used in the description herein and throughout the claims that follow,“a”, “an”, and “the” includes plural references unless the contextclearly dictates otherwise. Also, as used in the description herein andthroughout the claims that follow, the meaning of “in” includes “in” and“on” unless the context clearly dictates otherwise.

Thus, while particular embodiments have been described herein, latitudesof modification, various changes, and substitutions are intended in theforegoing disclosures, and it will be appreciated that in some instancessome features of particular embodiments will be employed without acorresponding use of other features without departing from the scope andspirit as set forth. Therefore, many modifications may be made to adapta particular situation or material to the essential scope and spirit.

1. An apparatus, wherein the apparatus includes a holder for coupling amobile phone to a thigh of a wearer of the apparatus, wherein the mobilephone includes a display screen, the holder comprising: a pocket forslidably receiving the mobile phone, the pocket including a top edgeopening for sliding the mobile phone into the pocket; a transparent topface allowing at least a part of the mobile phone's display to bevisible when the mobile phone is inside the pocket; a horizontal strapfor securing the pocket to a thigh of a wearer of the holder such thatthe mobile phone is upside-down when the wearer is upright and isright-side-up to the wearer's viewpoint when the wearer is sitting; anda vertical strap for preventing downward movement of the pocket when thewearer is upright.
 2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the top faceincludes a plastic sheet.
 3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein when thephone is inserted into the pocket the plastic sheet does not cover allof a top face of the phone.
 4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the topface includes a mesh material.
 5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein thetop face is open.
 6. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising: abody coupled to the horizontal strap and to the pocket.
 7. The apparatusof claim 6, wherein the pocket can be rotated by hand with respect tothe body.
 8. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the pocket is secured tothe body at an angle with respect to the horizontal strap so that anysag of the horizontal strap on one side of the wearer's thigh iscompensated to maintain the phone in a more vertical position than ifthe pocket was not secured at the angle.
 9. The apparatus of claim 1,wherein the pocket size provides for a part of the phone to protrudefrom the pocket when the phone is inserted into the pocket so that thephone may be easily removed from the pocket by gripping, at least inpart, the protruding part of the phone.
 10. The apparatus of claim 1,wherein the phone includes a processor, one or more sensors and astorage device, wherein the storage device includes instructionsexecutable by the processor for: using a signal from the one or moresensors to determine if the phone is worn by someone who is upright; anddisplaying an image in response to the signal.
 11. The apparatus ofclaim 10, wherein upright includes standing.
 12. The apparatus of claim10, wherein upright includes walking.
 13. The apparatus of claim 12,wherein an animation occurs in time with footsteps of the walking. 14.The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the pocket further includes: a pocketedge made of flexible cloth.
 15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein thepocket edge includes: a backing for allowing the pocket edge to bearranged on a body of the holder so that the pocket can accommodatedifferent shapes of devices to be inserted into the pocket.
 16. A holderfor a portable device, wherein the holder affixes the portable device toa thigh of a wearer, wherein the portable device includes a displayscreen, the holder comprising: means for coupling the portable device toa holder; and means for coupling the holder to the thigh of the wearerin a manner that prevents vertical slipping of the holder down the thighwhen the wearer is upright.